[governance] REVISED Notes from Under-Secretary-General Sha's

Wed Mar 31 03:37:55 EDT 2010

Dear Thomas,
Thank you very much for this report. 
The CSTD Bureau consists of the Chair and four Vice-Chairs. Together, they represent all five UN regions. The present Chair is Switzerland, Vice-Chairs are El Salvador,Ghana,India and Slovakia. 
 http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Page.asp?intItemID=4805&lang=1
So if I understood correctly, what Sha is saying is that if this group puts in a request, the document can/will be made available to the CSTD.
Best,
Yrjö
> From: toml at communisphere.com
> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
> Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:41:32 -0400
> Subject: [governance] REVISED Notes from Under-Secretary-General Sha's briefing on IGF at UN New York March 30 2010
> 
> Sorry for this REVISED version but I noticed that several ellipses ... were 
> stripped from my earlier version.
> 
> Internet Governance – IGF Briefing by Under-Secretary-General Sha at UN 
> March 30, 2010
> 
> The briefing began at 3:15 PM at the new temporary building at UN 
> Headquarters in New York City. Under-Secretary- General for Economic and 
> Social Affairs Mr. Sha Zukang presided.
> 
> Mr. Sha began with a statement about his early interest in Internet 
> Governance, stating that he was the first to bring up the subject of 
> Internet Governance at the U.N. Apparently responding to some suspicion 
> arising from his former position as China’s Ambassador to the U.N., and the 
> controversies about China’s oversight of that nation’s Internet resources, 
> he stated that he spoke as a U.N. employee. He stated that China had no real 
> interest in this matter and was not even present in the hall. "They don’t 
> care."
> 
> He then read a six page statement, interspersed with personal observations. 
> I’ll endeavor to transcribe from the written statement beginning after the 
> history on page 3, under the heading "How The Review Process Will Unfold." 
> After reading the statement Mr. Sha took statements from Yemen, EU, Egypt, 
> Sri Lanka, Canada, U.S., U.K., France, Norway, ICC and some concluding 
> statements by Mr. Sha.
> 
> From page 3 of the written statement [with my comments in brackets] -
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> How The Review Process Will Unfold
> 
> When the IGF was created, it was given a lifespan of five years, after which 
> time Member States would review the desirability of its continuation. The 
> Secretary-General was asked to assist in this process by examining its 
> merits taking into account the views of its many participants. More 
> precisely, Member States, in paragraph 76 of the Tunis Agenda "ask the UN 
> Secretary General to examiner the desirability of the continuation of the 
> Forum, in formal consultation with Forum participants, within five years of 
> its creation, and to make recommendations to the UN Membership in this 
> regard." Those five years have now come to an end.
> 
> The formal consultations were initiated by an online process…
> 
> A total of 61 written submissions were received following these calls for 
> public comment, of which 40 responded to the online questionnaire. 
> Contributions were received from Governments… Comments were also received 
> from a number of individuals.
> 
> In November 2009, I convened a formal consultation with IGF participants 
> during the fourth meeting of the Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. During the 
> consultation 47 speakers…
> 
> Eight statements of participants who were not given a speaking time slot due 
> to time constraints were posted online. In addition, two statement were 
> submitted after the consultations.
> 
> The total number of contributions over the six month consultation period 
> from July to December 2009 was thus 118.
> 
> Paragraph 35 of the Tunis Agenda enumerates four groups of stakeholders and 
> describes, in broad terms, the role that each might play in Internet 
> governance. They are:
> 
> 1. Governments;
> 
> 2. The private sector;
> 
> 3. Civic society;
> 
> 4. Intergovernmental and other international organizations.
> 
>  
> 
> Member States also recognized "the valuable contributions by the academic 
> and technical communities within those stakeholder groups…
> 
> Here, Member States have been very clear. The WSIS Declaration of Principles 
> adopted during the first phase of the Summit express a commitment to 
> building an inclusive, people-centered and development-oriented Information 
> Society for all. The Tunis Agenda, adopted during the second phase, 
> reinforced this understanding by calling for the establishment of a platform 
> for multistakeholder dialogue, the IGF, where voices could be heard.
> 
> What stakeholders have said
> 
> [This section enumerated six areas where participants made suggestions.]
> 
> Submission of the Recommendations of the Secretary-General
> 
> It is in the spirit of inclusiveness that the recommendations of the 
> Secretary-General must be prepared , taking into account the opinions 
> expressed by all stakeholder groups in the consultations.
> 
> Based on Paragraph 76 of the Tunis Agenda, the note will be transmitted to 
> the 65th session of the General Assembly for consideration under item 17 of 
> the provisional agenda on information and communication technology for 
> development.
> 
> The General Assembly will decide on the issue of the consultation of the 
> IGF.
> 
> Recently, some Member States have expressed the desire that the note of the 
> Secretary-General on continuation of the IGF be submitted to the CSTD for 
> consideration.
> 
> As you know, the agenda and the programme of the work of the CSTD were 
> decided by ECOSOC in its decision 2009/219. The decision did not request 
> that the Commission review the continuation of the IGF. Nor was there any 
> subsequent request for the submission of the recommendations of the 
> Secretary-General to the CSTD.
> 
> In the provisional annotated agenda and organization of work issued early 
> this month under the symbol E/CN.16/2010/1, the matter of the continuation 
> of the IGF was nowhere mentioned in the annotated agenda of the CSTD.
> 
> While CSTD is scheduled to consider WSIS follow up, it will address the 
> broad issue of the assessment of the five-year progress made in the 
> implementation of WSIS.
> 
> Without a specific request from the CSTD, as requested in the decision of 
> ECOSOC, DESA is proceeding with the preparation of the recommendations of 
> the /Secretary-General, with the documentation timeline for the General 
> Assembly. [Here he emphasized the need and difficulty of translating into 
> the UN’s 6 languages.]
> 
> The matter whether the CSTD will consider the recommendations of the 
> Secretary-General on the continuation of the IGF will therefore be a 
> decision by Member States.
> 
> Regarding the note of the Secretary-General containing the recommendations 
> of the continuation of the IGF, UNDESA could circulate the note of the 
> Secretary-General during the 13th session of the CSTD in Geneva from 17-21 
> May. [Here Mr. Sha emphasized the use of the word "could."]
> 
> However, since the Secretariat is preparing the note according to the 
> documentation timeline of the General Assembly, the note will be only in 
> unedited form in English only. The official document on six languages will 
> not be available before then. As you know, the advance text itself must go 
> through editing, translation and production processes.
> 
> So the issue before us is two-fold – a decision by member states as to 
> whether the recommendations of the Secretary-General should be submitted 
> first to CSTD; whether Member States could proceed with consideration of the 
> recommendations in the advance unedited form and not in six official 
> languages.
> 
> At any rate I would be pleased to send a representative to CSTD to share 
> whatever information we can on the substance of the SGs recommendations, if 
> invited.
> 
> Let me conclude by repeating that this briefing serves to inform you about 
> the process for preparation of the SGs recommendation…
> 
> Mr. Sha then took statements from several entities.
> 
> Yemen – presented a "Statement on Behalf of the Group of 77 and China." (See 
> http://www.g77.org/doc/ on Group of 77) After a preamble it made 6 points, 
> which I paraphrase:
> 
> 1. The issue is important and must be addressed at the General Assembly 
> regardless of other fora that might also discuss it.
> 
> 2. G77 and China believe IGF should be reviewed every 2-3 years.
> 
> 3. IGF should focus, among other areas, "on how to resolve significant 
> public policy issues such as the unilateral control of the critical Internet 
> resources…"
> 
> 4. The IGF should move beyond advice and provide advice to intergovernmental 
> bodies.
> 
> 5. LDC’s should be more involved than in the past.
> 
> 6. "the Tunis Agenda should be strictly followed, when reforming the IGF, so 
> as not to duplicate the work and mandates of other existing arrangements, 
> mechanisms, institutions or organizations." And the IGF should continue to 
> work under the auspices of the UN.
> 
> EU- Offered strong support for another five years in its current form. The 
> CSTD should be directly involved in the process. They suggested that the 
> preliminary note’s "could" be circulated status be changed to "will."
> 
> Egypt – They subscribe to Group of 77 plus China. Supports continuation of 
> IGF but its working methods need to be revised. Needs more financial support 
> for LDCs. Paragraph 71 has not been followed.
> 
> Sri Lanka – Support continuation of IGF.
> 
> Canada – Supports IGF continuation.
> 
> U.S. – Statement by Michael Snowden, Advisor, Economic and Social Affairs. 
> Appreciate effort put forward by Mr. Sha. Echo previous statement. IGF has 
> been valuable. They second the hope that an early version of the SGs notes 
> can be circulated prior to CSTD.
> 
> U.K. – 60252 asked ECOSOC to work with CSTD. Would like copy circulated 
> prior to CSTD.
> 
> Mr. Sha Comment – As long as the General Assembly membership agrees that an 
> English-only version may circulate, he will enable it. But there must be a 
> unanimous call for this.
> 
> France – Agreed with G 77 and China and EU. Wants it for the CSTD meeting 
> but language is an issue. [Here Mr. Sha praised France.]
> 
> Norway – Asked about paragraph 71. Staff had to check this and this process 
> was to be undertaken by Council of Europe, ICANN, IETF, OECD, WIPO, W3C. He 
> referred to a SG progress report in 2008.
> 
> Mr. Sha noted that he follows the General Assembly:
> 
> 193 members of General Assembly
> 
> 54 members of ECOSOC
> 
> 43 members of CSTD.
> 
> ICC (International Chamber of Commerce – Supports continuation of IGF.
> 
> Mr. Sha – CSTD can be helpful but it can’t supplant the work of the General 
> Assembly. He needs a request from the CSTD, from the bureau [not sure which 
> that is] or an ad hoc group before he can release the draft SG note. He also 
> needs the non-English to say it is OK, or minimally not object. One 
> objection would probably stop him from releasing it.
> 
> End of notes and comments. Tom Lowenhaupt. 2:06 AM. March 31, 2010.
> 
> 
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